The Dark Knight - 9/10

After four previous tries to make an interesting Batman film, Christopher Nolan made Batman Begins, which finally took the character seriously. The film studied Bruce Wayne’s psychology, how it was affected by the murder of his parents, and his eventual decision to become a masked vigilante to fight crime. Begins was easily better than any previous Batman film, even though it’s introverted style put limitations on what type of villain could be faced.

In The Dark Knight, Nolan’s sequel to Batman Begins, we are introduced to The Joker (Heath Ledger). The Joker is a terrorist who doesn’t ever seem to have a plan, let alone a motive. He may be one of the most complicated villains ever to appear in a film, and maybe that is the point Nolan is making with his inclusion. Throughout the film, Batman (Christian Bale) attempts to find and capture The Joker as he terrorizes Gotham. There really isn’t much more of a plot than that.

Batman is helped by two other crime fighters: Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), and the newly elected District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent also is dating Bruce’s old girlfriend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), something which eats at Bruce throughout the film. These three men are the focus of the film and are forced to work together to fight The Joker and give Gotham hope for the future. Two others who return from Begins to help out Batman are Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who helps Bruce build a new Bat-suit, and his butler Alfred (Michael Caine).

The theme throughout The Dark Knight lies within The Joker and Gotham’s attempts to not only capture him, but to understand him. The villains in Begins were very scattershot and small-time because there was nobody for him to fight. Only the Scarecrow showed any psychotic capabilities, while the rest of them were mostly higher-up mob figures. Simply, these were all easy people for Batman to catch.


Cut to the opening of The Dark Knight, the Scarecrow has been dealing his hallucinogenic drugs to Gotham dealers and the dealers are complaining that they aren’t getting any repeat business. This doesn’t bother the Scarecrow since there is nobody else to mass distribute drugs, Batman caught them all. While the Scarecrow isn’t the most terrifying of Batman villains, he represents a void in the underground crime world where mid-level and lower gangsters must turn to someone like him in order to make any sort of living. This point is never made clearer than the first big scene with The Joker.

Thus the journey to understand The Joker begins. From the very beginning he points out the mob’s inability to find success and offers to take care of Batman for them. He says he will do it for a lot of money. Later in the film, he will claim several other motives, from sending a message to simply having fun. At times, The Joker may seem to have the most intricate of plans, yet later on he admits that he has no clue what he’s doing.

Batman at least attempts to know what he’s doing, yet The Joker, as well as some federal laws might prohibit some of his actions. Topics such as extradition and privacy are approached. There is a scene in The Dark Knight where Batman drops someone off a building in order to get some information. This parallels a scene in Batman Begins where Batman drops someone else off of a building, looking for information. However, in Begins, Batman has his legs tied up and makes sure he doesn’t get hurt. In this film, Batman breaks the guy’s legs.

The Dark Knight is filled with questions about morality, yet there are two which seem to stand above the others. One of them is “How important is it to be able to understand an unknown threat like The Joker?” There is a ton of symbolism in the film comparing The Joker to a mad dog. The criminals all keep dogs around them because they found out that they are the only weapon which can hurt Batman through his armor. The Joker is the only criminal who has had the ability to hurt Batman regardless of his armor, so far. Harvey Dent compares him to a “dog who has been let off his leash,” in his fight against the mob. The Joker compares himself to a dog chasing cars. At one point, Batman catches The Joker by tying him up and essentially putting him on a leash. Is The Joker really just a dog which has gone crazy?


The other big question is “At what cost is it acceptable to break laws in order to protect your citizens?” This question has many implications on how we view our world today. Like the previously mentioned scene where Batman throws someone off a building, he seeks information by beating and torturing many people. He also invades the privacy of a significant amount of Gotham’s residents in his search for The Joker. With all of this power, how much damage is allowed to be done to the people of Gotham if it means that they will be protected from violence? On the other side, how much violence will the people be willing to put up with before they can accept the intrusion?

It isn’t hard to see how Gotham in The Dark Knight mimics our real world today. Nolan has captured the post-9/11 zeitgeist perfectly and created a film which asks some very serious questions about our future. How much do we need to understand an unknown threat in order to not only be able to combat it, but to not live in fear of it? How willing are people to forego their freedoms so that they may be protected? How much power is too much power for one man, and how much does that power corrupt? These questions may not come with easy answers, but they are issues which need to be talked about, and The Dark Knight starts off the conversation better than any other film could have.

WALL*E - 10/10

Recently the AFI came out with another list, their top 10 movies from ten different genres. They included: Animation, Romantic Comedy, Western, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gangster, Courtroom Drama, and Epic. The new Pixar film WALL*E could easily be number one in at least six of them.

That last statement may reek a bit of hyperbole, and in time, as well as after repeated viewings, 2001: A Space Odyssey may still be a better science fiction movie and Lawrence of Arabia may still be a better epic. However, WALL*E is good, really good, and is at the very least the best movie of 2008 thus far.

The story follows the last remaining solar powered Waste Allocator Load Lifter – Earth Class robot, or in short, WALL*E, around as he picks up the trash on an uninhabited planet Earth. Where did all of the people go? They all packed up and are living in a resort in space, leaving the planet covered in trash from the Big ‘N Large corporation.

WALL*E goes about his day as most of us do. He’s cranky when he wakes up. He packs his lunch pail. He does his job and then goes home to watch TV. His favorite movie is Hello Dolly! which he watches an old VHS copy of every night. WALL*E collects pieces of garbage which he is curious about, and other pieces of trash which may help him dress a bit more like the characters in Hello Dolly! He also practices the dance routines in dreams of impressing a girl so much that she will hold his hand.

One day, as WALL*E is out doing his daily trash duty, a new sleek spaceship comes by to drop off a robot named EVE. WALL*E immediately falls in love with EVE, but EVE has a mission. Her mission is to find vegetation on Earth. In an effort to woo EVE, WALL*E presents her with several gifts, one of which being a plant. EVE collects the plant and shuts down, waiting for the spaceship to come back and pick her up. WALL*E doesn’t understand, but tries desperately to be with her. When the ship comes back and takes EVE away, WALL*E follows after.

The way WALL*E tells its story is a wonder all in its own right. There is hardly any dialogue in the film, yet everything is communicated efficiently and effectively. Most of the emotion comes straight from WALL*E’s eyes and personality. His interactions with EVE are simple enough that anyone can understand them and universal enough that anyone can relate to them. All he wants is someone to hold his hand, isn’t that all anyone really wants?

The only other “living” thing left on the planet, WALL*E isn’t technically living since he is a robot, is a cockroach which WALL*E keeps as his pet. This simple fact makes the movie all that more dark. Occasionally WALL*E will break, or his treads will wear out. In this situation he turns to the remains of other broken down WALL*Es, scavenging them for parts in an almost cannibalistic way. It really is amazing how disturbing the premise and set-up is for this remarkably sweet and heartwarming love story. Although this is easily the darkest movie Pixar has ever made, the disturbing nature of this vision of a dystopian future will no doubt go over the heads of younger viewers. It may have a lasting impression upon the adults who take their children to see WALL*E.

And therein lies the point of the film, or at least what I got out of it. According to WALL*E, 700 years in the future the world is an uninhabitable place where the only skyscrapers left are giant piles of corporate garbage, pushed together by the last remaining robot left to clean up our mess. How did the world get this way? Are we contributing to Pixar’s vision of the future right now?

Think about any kind of social message that was put into Happy Feet or An Inconvenient Truth, then go see WALL*E and think about how much more effective this film is. The key is how we relate to the main character. We can all relate to how WALL*E is inspired to find love through film, and now Pixar is asking us to also be inspired by film, but for a much different reason. On top of that, the film doesn’t talk down to us like Happy Feet, it simply makes us relate.

Aside from how thought-provoking WALL*E can be, the more surface-oriented aspects outshine most other films. Pixar continues to simply make better looking animated films than any other company, and there are some scenes in this film which are really just fun to look at. Characters are developed more thoroughly than in most other films, and it’s done in large part without any vocal communication.

Even more impressive, this film is funnier than any that has come out in the past decade, more so than anything Judd Apatow or Edgar Wright could hope to make. There is plenty of pre-tense for humor without dialogue, but the innocence attached to it in WALL*E makes it so much more touching, and so much funnier. There is also a short before the film about a magician and his bunny which is easily one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Again, this review may seem like a giant amount of hyperbole, but at the very least, this will be one of the most memorable theater-going experiences of my life. Movies like this make me can’t wait until I have children, so I can share these wonderful movies with them. This is easily the best movie of the year so far, and also Pixar’s best.

Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs - 9/10

Futurama’s direct-to-DVD revival continues with The Beast With a Billion Backs. This entry picks up right at the end of Bender’s Big Score when innumerous clones of Bender exploded causing a rip in the universe. On the other side of this rip lies a lonely, planet-sized tentacle monster who inhabits our universe with plans on raping all of us. To anyone who is turned off by the weirdness of this premise, yes it is weird, but please don’t be turned off because this is Futurama at its best.

After the last movie, which was driven by a need to address a Futurama-starved fan-base, it’s nice to see this movie take off with a very involving plot. Although nothing emerges from the rip until about forty-five minutes into the film, the questions surrounding it are more than intriguing. This helps the pacing tremendously and makes the movie feel like a movie, unlike Bender’s Big Score which felt like four episodes put together.

The film, like many of the original episodes, centers around Fry’s loneliness in the 31^st century. Usually his target is Leela, throwing himself at any chance for a relationship with her. However, after the events of the last film, Fry has moved on and started dating a girl named Colleen. The relationship goes so well that Fry ends up moving in with her. When he arrives at her place, he finds out that she is also dating four other guys, all of whom also live with her. Fry tries to make it work, but he just can’t handle it.

Meanwhile, Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Wernstrom are busy trying to figure out what this rip in the universe is and how to protect ourselves from it in case it turns dangerous. They find out that living things can pass through the rip, but mechanical objects cannot. Upon learning this, Fry decides to leave the universe and try to find a companion in the new one. He ends up finding Yivo, voiced by David Cross, who latches a tentacle to the back of Fry’s neck and carries him back to Earth to rule over mankind.

I liked the introduction of Yivo into this world. We already had a “God” character in the episode Godfellas, and then he made another appearance in Bender’s Big Score, albeit just for a moment. Although Yivo wants to control everyone in the universe, he really is just a lonely monster who is looking for love. In Christianity, God loves us and wants our love in return, but we are given a choice whether or not to reciprocate that love. Yivo forcefully seeks our love, basically raping people, but once his tentacle is attached the love is automatically sent back. There is not a person attached to Yivo who regrets it.

The dynamic between Fry, Yivo, and Fry’s new girlfriend Colleen is very interesting. All three are seeking love, yet Fry wants a one-on-one relationship with another person while Colleen and Yivo want to love everyone freely and see nothing wrong in this. Both Yivo and Colleen also are afraid that people will reject their love and do what they can to keep it. They both do not want their companions to seek out others, and both make this very clear. At one point Yivo decrees that none of his followers are allowed contact with anyone except his other followers. To me, this sounds a lot like “Thou shall have no other God before me.” Limiting contact to only other followers means that nobody will be able to find out about another God to follow, which gives Yivo some security.

While Yivo’s attempts are more forceful and obvious, Colleen does get very upset when Fry dumps her. Although she does not feel she needs to change her polygamist ways, she does want Fry to be with her. Comparing God to a clingy, yet slutty girlfriend is something which will no doubt turn many viewers off, but it is a very thought-provoking interpretation of Christianity.

For those seeking a more simplistic viewing, The Beast With a Billion Backs is very funny and very entertaining. The animation is very well done and certain scenes are a joy to just look at. One of my favorites was the scene where Fry goes into the other universe by himself and floats along in a world of nothingness.

The comedy is also there too. While most of the movie is driven by the comedic premise used to set up a philosophical debate on love and God, Bender is still Bender and there are plenty of jokes and sight-gags to keep you entertained. This movie may not be as funny as Bender’s Big Score, but it’s funny enough.


The one problem I did have with this film was the timing of some of the jokes. This film is significantly darker than anything Futurama has done before, and there were some missed opportunities to take the film a step further. Where reflection was needed on some of the more somber moments, an unnecessary, albeit usually very funny joke was often inserted to lighten the mood, which was very distracting. If the film had a little more room to breathe in some areas, it could have been a very powerful piece of work added to the Futurama canon.

This movie ranks up there with the best of the original episodes of Futurama. I hope that the next movie is as thought provoking as this one, and if it’s not, then at least I hope it’s a very funny romp. Hopefully these movies will be a huge success and the show will be brought back, but if not, I’m happy we at least got this movie.

Coming Soon...

Hi, my name is Scott and I'm a poor movie addict. I'm addicted to watching movies, and as sad as that sounds, it also makes me financially troubled (see what I did there with the word poor).

Here you will find me reviewing, listing, and simply opining about movies. Other subjects will arise from time to time, but it will mostly be about movies. I will review new releases (however probably not right when they come out since I am poor), but mostly I will concentrate on older titles. I will dissect and deconstruct, or as my roommate likes to call it = read too much into, several different films and hope to provide some sort of insight to them. Be encouraged to use the comment feature or my email to disagree with me and generate conversation.

Also, yearly, I hope to submit a list of my favorite 100 films of all time. I'm currently working on the first incarnation of this list and hope that it will debut sometime next month. From time to time I will have other lists, but this will be the important annual one. The goal of this list is to track tastes over time and see which movies stick and which are forgotten.

I hope you check back every once in a while and see what's up. I'll try to update this regularly and have new posts at least weekly. Thanks for stopping by!